The Global Young Bioceramicist (GYB) Award recognizes the outstanding young ceramic engineer and material scientist, who has made significant contributions to the area of Bioceramics, for human healthcare around the globe. Nominations are invited from the candidates from academia, industry, or government-funded national laboratory – across the world.
The award will be presented at the ACerS Annual Meeting/MS&T. The award winner will present an award lecture at a bioceramics-focused symposium at the meeting. The awardee shall receive a certificate, glass piece, and complimentary registration.
Nomination Process
The major criteria used in selecting the recipient of this award is:
- the individual’s contribution to the field of Bioceramics in terms of scholarly research publications/ patents/ technology commercialization, including translational research (bench to bed side)
- the individual’s contributions to the outreach activities, including organizing bioceramics-specific sessions at major international conferences and technical events, global young professional forum, and other professional events, which should have enhanced the visibility of the field of bioceramics.
A nominee must be 35 years old or younger at the time of award presentation (October of the award year), and is required to be a member of The American Ceramic Society.
Self-nominations are not recommended.
Nominations are to be recommended by a sponsor, who is a standing member of The American Ceramic Society.
The nomination profile should include:
- Nominee’s latest CV
- Two supporting letters
The deadline for nominations is January 31 in the year preceding the MS&T conference.
Contact
Nominations, including a written statement of the nominee’s qualifications and contributions, should be sent to the division chair:
Annabel Braem
KU Leuven
Award Winners
Antonia Ressler
Dr. Antonia Ressler started her scientific career at the University of Zagreb, Faculty of Chemical Engineering and Technology (Croatia) where she obtained a Bachelor (2014), a Master (2016) and PhD degrees (2020) in materials sciences. Her PhD focused on biomaterials based on chitosan and metal-ion-substituted hydroxyapatite for tissue engineering applications. During her early research stage, she developed her skills in biological characterization and ceramic 3D-printing at Center for Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering, Universitat Politehnica de Valencia (Spain) and Tallinn University of Technology (Estonia), respectively.
In 2022, Dr. Ressler received prestigious Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship for AffordBoneS project, and she continued her career at Tampere University, Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences (Finland). During AffordBoneS project, she focused on development of personalized and affordable multi-substituted calcium phosphate-based scaffolds for bone augmentation applications by using ceramic vat photopolymerization method in collaboration with industry partners, Lithoz GmbH (Austria) and Planmeca Oy (Finland). From 2024, Dr. Ressler continues to develop scaffolds for bone regeneration under her GlassBoneS project at Tampere Institute for Advanced Study (Tampere University). Simultaneously, Dr. Ressler is investigating material functionalization to develop biomaterials with antibacterial properties against clinical isolates of multi-drug resistant bacteria, which cause infections during bone implant surgeries.
Dr. Ressler has published more than 30 scientific papers in international peer-reviewed journals (h-index 16), was recognized as one of the top 2% of most-cited scientists worldwide according to the 2024 Stanford University list of citation metrics, held several invited lectures during scientific conferences worldwide, and was guest editor for the journal Open Ceramics. During her career, Dr. Ressler was awarded with Rector’s Award for scientific work for Master students (2015), the award for the best oral presentation held at the conference awarded by the European Ceramic Society, L’Oreal-UNESCO award for “Women in Science” (2020), an initiative by the L’Oréal Foundation in partnership with UNESCO, and award „Ivan Plotnikov“ for the best young scientist of the Faculty of Chemical Engineering and Technology of the University of Zagreb in 2022.
In addition to her scientific work, Dr. Ressler strongly believes in the importance of volunteering within the scientific community. She has served as a committee member of the Young Ceramists Network, which aims to foster interactions between young students and professionals conducting research on ceramics. Currently, she is a committee member of the Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in the Ceramic Community initiative of the European Ceramic Society, as well as the ENS Postdoctoral Network at Tampere University. She was a member of the organizing committee for American Ceramic Society Winter Workshop (2022), local organizing committee for the Young Ceramists Additive Manufacturing Forum (yCAM, 2024) and is currently part of organizing committee of the 18th Scandinavian Society for Biomaterials meeting (Finland, 2025). Simultaneously, she shares her expertise by conducting a one-day workshop “Navigating Global Research Careers – Young Researchers Sharing Their Experience” in collaboration with Dr. Soňa Hříbalová. In this workshop, they provide insights on building a competitive CV, strategies for going abroad and succeeding, tips and tricks for successful grant applications, and how to conduct research with excellence and impact.